Come Home - Not A Priority

What is Important?

If it’s important you make time for it, if it’s not you make excuses.

We live in a world where things are not just trying to get out attention and make themselves a priority they scream at us to pay attention to them. We are so connected to everything that everything we touch has instant access to us.

News update? Your phone buzzes.

Someone you follow on socials posted an update? Phone buzzes.

Aunt Myrtle goes to the beach? Phone buzzes.

You haven’t check your notifications in 4 hours. Phone buzzes.

Cell phone, these lovely little devices have become masters instead of servants.

Instant communication has tried to convince us that just because it happens we need to know about it and give our attention to it.

It has moved from a notification or request to a demand and every time we respond or acknowledge it we reinforce the idea that it is important and a priority.

Choices

Then there are the things we give not just out attention and time to but our presence to. Sports, TV, hobbies and so on. Things that are good but sometimes take preeminence in our lives.

There are so many things we chose to give our lives and time to. I love college football. I chose to spend Saturday’s watching the Vols play. It is enjoyable to me. But should it take the place of a birthday party for a friend? Should it be more important than playing a game with the kids? Sometimes it is. I am not going to lie. Sometimes I let that thing become more important.

Again,

If it’s important you make time for it, if it’s not you make excuses.

There are things that are important and things that are not. We do not really have to wonder about what is important to us. All we have to do is look at what we give our time to.

Time Budget

Most people know the importance of a budget when it comes to their finances, but when it comes to our time most of us do not give much thought to it. However we are only given so much time a week. 168 hours to be precise. That is amount of hours you get in a week. if you subtract sleep which is somewhere between 6-8 hours a night, let’s say 7 then you only get 119 hours. This is what you are allowed to spend barring sickness. We all get the same allowance. What is your priority with that time?

If money helps you think about the importance of your time, take whatever you make an hour and multiply it by 119. So for example if you make $20 an hour you get $2,380 a week to spend on things. Everything you do in an hour or half hour increments costs you $10-20.

You want to watch tv for 4 hours a night? That’ll be $80.

You want to scroll on your phone for 2 hours? That’ll be $40.

Is it worth the costs? When we look at what we prioritize this is one way we can ask, is it worth the cost?

Just like with money, we can, spend it on necessary things, waste it or invest it.

If you want to spend 3 hours at the park with your kids? That’ll be $60.

I recently took Gracie to Dallas to do some school tours. It took us 36 hours total. That was $720.

Those are good investments.

I would challenge you to make a time budget this week and see where you are spending your time, see what you are making a priority.

Where are your priorities. What gets the time you get? What things are you spending your 119 on?

When you search your priorities and examine you 119 what do you find? Are you setting them right? I think we should spend our best time on the things of God.

God And His is the Priority

Matthew 6:33 CSB

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

We worry about all sorts of things but the thing that is most important, the thing that will last, the thing that will inform everything else is God.

We get our priorities all our of wack sometimes. But God says seek me and my Kingdom first and everything else will line up.

You want to be a good parent, employee, boss, friend, whatever? Seek God make Him a priority and everything else will fall into line.

I would like us to look at a few verses from the book of Haggai.

Haggai 1:5–7 CSB

Now, the Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.” The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.

Haggai is an Old Testament prophet. He is the first post-exilic prophet. This means he was a prophet after the exile. The people are starting to come back from their captivity in Babylon. They were there for a 70 years and they are finally starting to come home.

They were exiled because they turned their backs on God. They forgot about justice, mercy, and walking humbly with Him. They placed everything else in the place of God and now they get to come back to their homeland. And once again, they forget their priorities.

They come home and they did not go back and start to rebuild the temple. The temple was not just a place of worship. It was that, no doubt about it. But it was also a source of national identity. It was the building that showed they belonged to God. They were people of the promise. It was the thing that said we are different we belong to YWHW.

God instantly wanted to correct this because He did not want them back to their old ways.

When we have our priorities out of whack, when we place ourselves first we find that it is never enough.

How many times have you seen people or you yourself wondered why is it all falling apart. Why am I working so hard and not getting ahead. Why is my marriage not thriving? Why are my kids being like they are? Why is it no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to get ahead?

God tells the people in Haggai’s day,

Haggai 1:9 CSB

“You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

They were doing it all on their own and for their own.

God is supposed to have the place of preeminence. That means He is supposed to have first place. If He is in first place then all other things find their meaning. Colossians 1:17 tells us that all things are held together by Jesus. He the cornerstone all things are built on. The glue that holds it all together. He can sustain it.

When we put other things in the place Jesus belongs it works for a little while but their strength runs out. They cannot hold it all together for long.

Eventually stuff is not enough.

We need more, we have to have more money or more kids, or better things. When we try to give anything other than Jesus the place of preeminence we make it an idol

“If you’re wondering if it’s an idol, try and give it up.”

If you run to it in times of trouble, it’s an idol.

If you can’t do without it, it’s an idol.

You plant and harvest little.

You eat but are never satisfied.

Philippians 3:19 CSB

Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things,

That is how the Bible describes people who place things or their own comfort over Christ. We have to adjust our priorities.

Think carefully about your ways.

Make God a Priority

We need to make God a priority. This means giving ourselves over to the things of God and prioritize them. We need to get back to the place of God being God and getting our best and then everything else will be where it belongs. You might be asking, ok Pastor Mike how do we do this? I am glad you asked. I will give you a few things.

Make Reading, Worship, and Prayer a Priority

Make Community a Priority

Make Giving a Priority

Make Service a Priority

Make Reading, Worship, and Prayer a Priority

One of my first questions when someone says God feels distant is what is your reading life like, what is worship life like, and what is your prayer life like? There are times when God is silent, times when you feel like you are going through the motions, times when it is not the feeling of love or being in love but the resolution of love is what is moving you forward.

That being said there are other times when God is not being quiet we are just not spending time with Him. If we want to make God a priority then it starts with reading, worship, and prayer.

If you say God is distant but you are not reading, worshiping, or praying then God is not the one who is distant.

We have to start with what we know. We said earlier in this series.

Deuteronomy 29:29 CSB

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

What are we doing with what is revealed?

How can we know God if we do not spend time with Him?

Make Community a Priority

We need to make community a priority. We have spoken about community many times and we will continue but for now we remember our mission here at Journey is to Encounter God, Engage Together, and Empower Change.

Engage Together. What does this mean? There is this idea that,

You become who you surround yourself with

We can say this a different way, “show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are.”

The people we give our time to, the people we make a priority will influence us in powerful ways. So if we want to make God a priority then we have to make godly community a priority.

This is small groups, church on Sunday, hanging out, golfing, ect. Yes it can create a Christian bubble and we need to be careful about that because we are called to reach the world but we also have to give priority to godly community.

Make Giving a Priority

This is not a message on giving but let’s be honest it is easy to criticize something you are not financially connected to. If you look at your finances and the things of God are not in there then you do not prioritize it. Giving is good for so many reasons but one is that,

Matthew 6:21 CSB

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Money means a lot to people so where their money is their treasure, their passion, their priority is as well.

Here is an example, we had GFA here a few weeks back and Mike from GFA spoke about the things God is doing around the world. My wife and I decided that we would support a missionary. It was not just talk it needed to be action. We needed skin in the game. Journey is not giving to this the Farley’s are. We give to this church and we give to others doing kingdom work, we support a child in the Congo, and now we support a missionary.

I do not say these things to boast, I have no boast but Christ, but I am letting you know this is real to us. My family completely believes in this idea that giving to the things of God must be a priority.

Criticism costs nothing—but commitment costs something. - Modern Proverb

What you are connected to financially is one of the quickest ways to determine if that thing is a priority.

Make Service a Priority

James 2:15–18 CSB

If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

We do not do good works to gain salvation. That is impossible.

We do not do good works to gain God’s favor. That is impossible.

We do good works, we make service a priority because we love God.

We can never earn God’s love or favor. You are never loved more or less by God. Nothing changes that. Service has nothing to do with that, we make service a priority because we love God and service is an overflow from that love.

Galatians 6:10 CSB

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

The word work here is ergazomai and it means among other things “do business” our business as the people of God should be doing good. Our work is the work of God.

The more we make God a priority. The more we fall deeply in love with God, the more madly in love with Jesus we fall, the more we want to serve others like He did.

Haggai 1:7 CSB

The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.

Think carefully about your ways, what are you giving priority. Is it God or does something else get your best?

If it’s important you make time for it, if it’s not you make excuses.